Memory and City Programme

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2 Memory and City Programme Conference Description : With a few exceptions (for example some cities on the Swahili coast, see Abungu 1998), the issue of heritage in Africa remains, in academic literature as well as among institutions in charge of the economic valorisation of heritage, very much attached to rural areas and societies. African cities, still widely considered alien in the landscape of a continent essentialized as rural ever since colonisation (Coquery Vidrovitch 1993, Freund 2007), are nonetheless important spaces for the construction of memory and heritage (which are not necessarily interchangeable terms). The topic of urban memory and its meaning in the making of neighbourhood identities and development strategies (linked to tangible and intangible heritage) produced by local and municipal governments and international donors, has only recently come under investigation by researchers in Africa. What image of these neighbourhoods is promoted and for what purpose? What selections and processes operate, as far as representations of these neighbourhoods are concerned, so that they acquire, in the long run, distinctive traits and stereotypes? In cities experiencing rapid transformation, often connected to new patterns of migration and mobility, what is the role of memory and nostalgia in the making of local identities? To what extent does this nostalgia serve the purpose of regeneration/gentrification policies a phenomenon that has been particularly prevalent in Johannesburg? In South Africa, memorial efforts since the democratic transition have mainly focused on the evocation of the (mostly urban) battlegrounds of the struggle : emblematic areas and neighbourhoods wiped out during the forced removals and resettlement policies led by the Apartheid regime (such as Red Location, Sophiatown, District 6), are today the object of memory enterprises which are, arguably, intended to contribute to the construction of a national identity rooted in memories of violent abuses committed under Apartheid (Saunders & Kros 2004, Didier et al. 2007). The question of the link between these memorialised neighbourhoods and the population currently living in them has, however, not yet been explored in depth. Above all, not only do these evocations of memory tend to occlude contradictory voices (Nieftagodien 2009) but little space is left for ordinary memories (as described by Hayden 1995). What space do ordinary, everyday or unspectacular memories have in the making of territorial identities? How do they articulate with grand memorial narratives promoted for the sake of national identity?

3 SESSION 1 The resilience of memory in the city: memory conflicts and issues of the postcolonial This first section will address a number of crucial issues regarding the negociation of memory in the city: how do processes of power and politics impact on the construction of memory in cities? Whose voices and which narratives are heard, and how are they represented? Who holds ownership of urban memory and what does this tell us about balances of political power, both on large and small scales? The session will pay particular attention to post colonial contexts and the negociation of memories in these cities. SESSION 2 Migration, mobility, memory: place making and networks The acceleration in patterns of economic migration, forced migration and the rapid growth of cities and urban populations over the past 20 years has made African cities important transit spaces with major implications for identities and the construction of urban imaginaries; elsewhere, the patterns of migration from other continents have profoundly impacted cities; this second session will reflect on the role of memory and life histories in the integration process of migrants in the city, with a particular focus on migrant neighbourhoods or enclaves, as well as the place of city located memories in the imaginaries of the diasporas in general. The panel will pay particular attention to the ordinary and hidden spaces of these migrant memories, in African cities and elsewhere. SESSION 3 Memory in urban policies/politics: between global consumption and community projects The themes approached in this session concern the status of urban memory as heritage in Africa. The notion of urban history and memory is often used as an instrumental tool of socio economic development strategies, initiated both by international donors and local governments. This use of heritage raises several questions about the kinds of narratives that are chosen as representative of memory, and which are occluded or seen as less useful; as well as questions regarding who has the power to use memory and for what purposes. The issue of nostalgia (of what, of whom?) in regeneration processes for instance will be under specific scrutiny in this panel: nostalgia appears nowadays to be a global construct (Appadurai 1996), participating in the worldwide circulation of urban models, and it is put to use in various urban development strategies, from gentrification to the setting up of cultural precincts. SESSION 4 Remembering as a practice: literature, photography, performance and city memory This session will address issues around the practices of remembering in the city, whether linked to the built environment or linked to intangible heritage. The role of various art forms in this processes of remembering will be at the core of the panel, whether connected to projects aiming at discovering hidden forms of memory in the city or reflecting on particular events such as carnivals and festivals. The panel will further reflect on the articulation between grand narratives and national or collective memories, and what could be termed ordinary, neighbourhood or local memory, including private archives, localised oral histories, and their use in major art projects.

4 Conference Programme TUESDAY 13 TH SEPTEMBER Wits University (John Moffat Building Wits University) 18h00 20h00 : Opening cocktail and Yeoville Studio exhibition WEDNESDAY 14 th SEPTEMBER John Moffat Building (Wits University) SESSION 1 The resilience of memory in the city: memory conflicts and issues of the postcolonial Chair: Nastasha Erlank Head of Department of Historical Studies (University of Johannesburg) 08h00 09h10 : Registration 09h00 09h25 : Opening speeches 09h25 10h00 : Keynote speech by Pr. Donatien Dibwe (Urban historian, running the History of Lubumbashi project) on Memories of Lubumbashi (DRC) 10h00 10h45 : Quentin Mercurol (University of Paris Ouest Nanterre La Défense IFRA Nairobi ) Colonial urban memory and periurban memories: reproduction of the colonial spatial dichotomies in Kisumu, Kenya Leonard Rosenberg (Physical Planning Department Durban University of Technology) A City within a city: The Casbah, Dutchene and Currie s Fountain 10h45 11h05 : Tea break 11h05 12h15 : Eric Makombe (University of the Witwaterstrand) Place attachment, operational memory, and symbols of home Mumusha Wembare, Chaya Hurnath (Faculty of Geography and Planning University Toulouse le Mirail, France) Articulation between Urban Memory and the Process of Heritagization: Case study of multicultural Port Louis (Mauritius) Anna Madoeuf (Université François Rabelais de Tours, France / UMR CITERES) From the depth of the old city to a redeeming panoramic view, building a place of memory in Cairo

5 12h15 13h00 : Discussion 13h00 14h00 : LUNCH SESSION 2 Migration, mobility, memory: place making and networks Chair: Ingrid Palmary Acting director of ACMS (African Centre for Migration and Society Wits University) 14h00 15h30 : Celine Barrère (Ecole Nationale Superieure d'architecture et de Paysage, Lille, France) Immigration furnished hotels of North & East of Paris as places of memory Kizito Muchemwa (University of Stellenbosch) Dumb/dump sites, migrants, and nomadic memory in Southern African cities Rasheed Olaniyi (University of Ibadan, Nigeria) on Yoruba Migrants, Memory and Politics of Identity in Urban Kano, Ludovic Gandelot (University of Paris 7 Diderot) on Africa and the city ports of Gujarat, 19 th 20 th century 15h30 15h50 : Tea break 15h50 16h25 : Discussion 16h25 17h00 : Keynote speech by Pr. Philippe Gervais Lambony (Geographer, University of Nanterre, France) on city nostalgia Evening 19h00 : Screening of My Uncle from Jacques Tati at Arts on Main( with dinner cocktail)

6 THURSDAY 15 TH SEPTEMBER University of Johannesburg (Soweto Campus Conference Hall) SESSION 3 Memory in urban policies/politics: between global consumption and community projects Chair: Noor Nieftagodien, researcher in the History Workshop (Wits University) 09h00 09h15 : Opening speeches 09h15 09h50 : Keynote speech by Pr. Annie Fourcaut (Urban historian, University of Paris I Sorbonne ) on the resurgence of history in recent political discussions regarding the Greater Paris project 09h50 10h35 : Marie Hélène Bacqué & Frédéric Dufaux (UMR Lavue, Laboratoire Mosaïques, University of Paris Ouest Nanterre La Défense) Selected memories of the working class in Nanterre and Saint Denis (France), former communist suburbs Marie Bridonneau (Laboratoire Gecko EA375 Université Paris Ouest Nanterre La Défense) "Lalibela, Ethiopia : building a sacred and rural memory for the development of a small touristic city 10h35 10h55 : Tea break 10h55 11h45 : Alan Mabin (University of the Witwaterstrand) Mobilisation of history and city futures Pauline Guinard (University of Paris Ouest Nanterre La Défense) "What room for ordinary memories in redevelopment projects, the case of Vilakazi St and the Johannesburg Development Agency (Silent Paper) : Joël Ninon (Université de La Réunion, France) Memory issues with regard to a slum eradication programme in Reunion Island cities 11h40 12h15 : Discussion 12h15 13h15 : LUNCH

7 SESSION 4 Remembering as a practice: literature, photography, performance and city memory Chair: TBC 13h15 14h45 : Tazneem Wentzel (University of Stellenbosch) Minstrel Mappings of Memory Anne Putter (University of Johannesburg) "Movement, transition and transformation in the city Olivier Marcel (Bordeaux 3 University IFRA Nairobi) Making the city historical contemporary art in the definition of memorial narratives in Nairobi, Kenya Sophie Feyder (Leiden University) Photography, memory and urban space : The Ngilima collection and the commemoration of Benoni Old Location (Silent Paper) : Danson Kahyana (University of Stellenbosch) " Imagining the City in Ugandan Fiction: the Portrayal of Kampala as an Unhomely and Unhoming Place 14h45 15h05: Tea break 15h05 15h50 : Discussion 15h50 16h30 : Closing speech by Pr. Cynthia Kros (University of the Witwatersrand) and members of the Organizing Committee Evening 17h00 18h30 : Visit of Vilakazi Street in Soweto by Pauline Guinard and Mdu 18h30 : Dinner at Sakhumzi restaurant in Soweto

8 FRIDAY 16 TH SEPTEMBER Site visits in Yeoville and Sophiatown Yeoville 09h30 10h00: Presentation of the Yeoville Stories project by Sophie Didier (French Institute of South Africa) and Naomi Roux (School of Arts, University of the Witwatersrand) 10h00 12h30 : Guided visits of the Yeoville neighbourhood by residents 12h30 14h00 : Lunch at L Ambassade restaurant in Yeoville Sophiatown 14h30 16h30 : Guided visits of the Sophiatown neighbourhood 16h30 19h00 : Participatory discussion with ex and current residents of Sophiatown & film screening (tbc)